Thesis Progress
User Journey 3.0
Find people by events (mutual interest)
1. Lookup for events
2. Decide which event to go
3. Find people who are going to the event as well
Engage efficiently and effectively online
4. Know people through their profiles
5. Engage with people through chat
6. Send an invitation to go to the event together
7. Schedule to meet at the event
Meet in person
8. Found the person at the event
9. Brief introduction / Short talk with each other
10. Participate in the event and have a conversation
Further engage
11. Small chat after the event
12. (Go to the next place together)
13. Exchange social media account and keep in touch
Prototype Focus
For the “Meet in person” and “Further engage” part, if the filtering of mutual interest works well and people successfully get an accurate first impression of each other, these two parts are likely to happen naturally. Thus the main prototype focus will be the first two parts of the design.
Areas of Weakness
Knowing people through their profiles and engaging with them through chat will be the primary engagement between users. These two parts of the flow directly determine the success or the failure of the entire user experience.
For the user profile part, it’s not enough to know a person for just seeing their pictures. Meanwhile, it is also a challenge to have people spend quite some time on one user’s profile. Of course, the authenticity of the user profiles should also be considered. Thus for this part, How might we help people efficiently get an accurate first impression of other users?
People have to spend a lot of time chatting with strangers to have a basic image of the person. And it takes a lot of trying to find topics that both parties are interested in. Thus for this part, How might we guide an efficient and effective conversation for both parties to know each other? Or How might we engage a continuing conversation for people to know each other?
Prototype Plan
Here are my upcoming plans after having the user journey map and problems identified:
WEEK 2: Brainstorm and build
1. Find out the most important things for users to know other strangers. Gather the information to build the user profile page.
2. Brainstorm and explore different ways of chat engagement experience.
3. Compare two different ways of communication (audio chat and text messages) for the prototype.
4. Design the user flow from user profile to chatting page.
WEEK 3: Simulate the chat experience, gather information from testers, and finalize the first version of the prototype
1. Build the user profile prototype, and simulate the chat experience using iMessages.
2. Recruit a tester and gather his/her information. Events he/she is interested in going, his/her background, what he/she likes, etc.
3. Find another person who is also interested in the same event. Gather information and build two user profiles.
4. Before next week’s testing, iterate with testers’ feedback.
WEEK 4: Test with users & get feedback
1. Outline the testing process.
2. Develop a measurement to see what is working what is not.
3. Start prototype testing and gather feedback.
4. Reflection on user testing feedback.
WEEK 5: Present
Value Proposition
Connect people through things they love.
Help users find, engage, and meet with people who have the same passion as they do. Empower users, especially people who are not good at socializing, to socialize with people who share mutual interests with no stress.